i watched "Night on Earth" by Jim Jarmusch, it was really good. 5 seperate stories of cab drivers in different cities around the world. music by tom waits. definitely a precursor to 'coffee and cigarettes' but not nearly as awkward as most of jarmusch's movies. and some of it is really fucking hilarious.

I saw Pan's Labyrinth over the weekend. I thought it really sucked. All the cool scenes are in the commercial; it's not really a fantasy movie, but a pretty limp-wristed portrayal of Fascist Spain during the week of D-Day; the dialogue is atrocious, and having it spelled out for you just drives the point home. It was one of those movies where I imagine the writer was sitting around and came up with a good idea for a movie, like we all do when we sit around, and didn't bother fleshing out the details, like we all do when we come up with an idea for a movie. Nevermind writing a STORY or maybe some decent scripting. The director even claims to have come up with the idea of this monster with eyes in his hands that he holds up to his face where his eye sockets should be, VERY reminiscent of numerous pictures of Thurston Moore from the 80s. Evol in particular has a picture of him like this, I believe. Oh well, everyone else seemed to really like the movie. I'd rather watch Labyrinth, or the Dark Crystal, or Willow, or even Legend... maybe BeastMaster.

The Good Shepherd... it was okay although it never had a climax. Kind of like Syriana (in style not content) but with even less action. It's long, but really interesting. I would watch it again to look for some of the things I missed the first time around.

I saw Blood Diamond a few nights ago. It was very well done and much better than I expected. From the previews, I was afraid it was gonna focus on the love story aspect between Leo's character and the girl more than anything else. But it didn't. It was a very good look at the horrible things that go on in 3rd world countries on a daily basis that the mainstream media (and the public) seem to not care about.

Strong performances, but hardly a film to remember. Needless to say, Rosalind Russell shone in a film which would hardy stand out in one of Hollywood's greatest decades in film. Heck, criminally, Rosalind Russell, as much as she was talented (go and see His Girl Friday, one of my favourite movies) she was underused and didn't really star in the 'classics' bar HGF, so essentially being the forgotten girl in Film Noir.

I rented four movies the other day while waiting for my Netflix to come in the mail. They were:

Don't Come Knocking
The Proposition
Hellraiser
Jacob's Ladder

The only one I hadn't seen before was the first one, which I got mainly for its credentials. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver.

I rented the last two to watch with my brothers. I'm trying to revisit horror-type movies that I haven't seen in a while to see how they've held up. A few months ago, I rented the Exorcist, and was surprised to find that it still makes me want to vomit.

I first saw The Proposition in August, I think, and really liked it then. I wanted to see it again, and the second time around I expected it to be not quite as thrilling as the first time, but I was wrong. I actually started watching it at 6 in the morning today because it was due back at noon and I had other stuff to do between then. I thought that watching a movie that early would just put me back to sleep, but that first scene woke me right up and I wasn't too tired after that. This movie was even better the second time around, although it was great seeing it on the big screen.

I haven't gotten a chance to watch Jacob's Ladder again yet, but I'm in no real hurry since I can keep it until Sunday.

__________________

"I sweat like a fucking nun on Sunday...I don't even know what that means."
- Sebastian Bach

Half of Edvard Munch and I love what I've seen - the problem is that I can not sit through a 3 hour long movie. I enjoy how the film flashes from young adult Munch, child Munch, and interviews with people describing the society during the time period. Really paints a great picture of who Munch was.